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WASHINGTON -- Home prices rose in May from a year earlier at the weakest pace in 15 months as sales remain modest in the spring buying season.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, increased 9.3 percent in May from 12 months earlier. That's down from 10.8 percent in the previous month and the smallest annual gain since February 2013.

Yearly price gains slowed in 18 of the 20 cities. They accelerated in Charlotte, North Carolina, and were flat in Tampa, Florida.

Home prices soared last fall and winter but have been steadily returning to a more sustainable level this year. Existing home sales have picked up, rising to an eight-month high in June. But they are still 2.3 percent below last year's level. And an index of signed contracts fell in June, suggesting sales will cool. At the same time, the number of homes for sale has increased, giving buyers more choices.

After steady gains early last year, home sales have been restrained by weak wage increases and tight credit, particularly for first-time buyers. Mortgage rates also rose last summer, slowing sales.

The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The May figures are the latest available.

Cities in the West and South showed some of the biggest increases. Prices rose 16.9 percent in Las Vegas from a year earlier, the largest gain, followed by a 15.4 percent increase in San Francisco and 13.2 percent in Miami.

Other housing data have painted a mixed picture of the real estate market. While sales of existing homes have picked up, new home sales plummeted in June. And new home construction has fallen for two straight months. That could lead to fewer construction jobs.

Still, home prices have risen steadily since housing began to recover in 2012. The Case-Shiller index has risen 27.3 percent after bottoming out in March 2012. But home prices remain about 17 percent below the peaks reached in the summer of 2006, just before the housing bust.

Year-over-year gain: 21.5%

Median sale price, Jan. 2013: $224,450

Median sale price, Jan. 2014: $272,750

Residents enjoy hundreds of nearby hiking trails, as well as indoor culture at the Fine Arts Center and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.

This neighborhood, bounded by the Schuylkill River and 20th Street, and by South Street and Christian Street, was viewed as a slum in the 1970s, when Philadelphia's Redevelopment Authority took over abandoned properties.

The Washington Post listed Sunset Hills among "the shortest commute" category of Virginia neighborhoods, with an average commute time of just over 21 minutes. And Dulles International Airport is about six miles away.

Brighton, once the center of New England's cattle trade, is in the northwest corner of Boston, on the Charles River. The Brighton Branch Library is Boston's first renovated LEED Green Building. The Brighton Police station is shown here.

South Loop joins a number of other once-blighted neighborhoods on this list that have been redeveloped and are now hot. The site of former rail yards, it was known for many years more for its vices (as in brothels, burlesques) than its residential virtues.

Newhall, the southernmost and oldest district of Santa Clarita, was the first permanent Anglo settlement in the valley. Ranches-turned-film studios dot the area, including the Melody Ranch, which was once owned by Gene Autry. The ranch hosts the annual Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival.

This is the most affluent neighborhood in Charlotte; the median income is $79,737, according to Zillow. That compares with a median of $46,975 for Charlotte. A high point of the area is the Duke Mansion, built in 1915 by tobacco magnate James Buchanan Duke.

People who live here, according to classifications Zillow uses to characterize residents, are likely to be: Corporate Climbers, Multi-lingual Urbanites or in a category called "Bright Lights, Big City," which Zillow uses to describe "singles ranging in age from the early 20s to mid-40s who have moved to an urban setting."

Bloomberg ranked neighborhoods in U.S. cities based on the year-over-year increase in median home sale prices from January 2013 to January 2014. Percentage increases were based on Zillow calculations of median sale prices of all home types and calculated only for neighborhoods with at least 10 sales per month. Only neighborhoods with median home sale prices of at least $250,000 in January 2014 were included. Data were rounded.